THE HOWS, WHATS AND WOWS OF THE WILLIS TOWER A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS SKYDECK CHICAGO PROPERTY MANAGED BY U.S. EQUITIES ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC WELCOME TO SKYDECK CHICAGO AT WILLIS TOWER THE NATION’S TALLEST SCHOOL When you get back to your school, we hope your students will send us photos or write or create There are enough impressive facts about the Willis artwork about their experiences and share them Tower to make even the most worldly among us with us (via email or the mailing address at the end say, “Wow!” So many things at the Willis Tower can of this guide). We’ve got 110 stories already, and we be described by a superlative: biggest, fastest, would like to add your students’ experiences to our longest. But there is more to the building than all collection. these “wows”: 1,450 sky-scraping, cloud-bumping feet of glass and steel, 43,000 miles of telephone One photo will be selected as the “Photo of the cable, 25,000 miles of plumbing, 4.56 million Day” and displayed on our Skydeck monitors for all square feet of floor space and a view of four states. to see. Artwork and writing will posted on bulletin boards in the lunchroom area. Your students also Behind the “wows” are lots of “hows” and “whats” can post their Skydeck Chicago photos to the Willis for you and your students to explore. In this Tower or Skydeck Chicago pages on flickr, a free guide you will be introduced to the building—its public photo-sharing site: http://www.flickr.com/ beginnings as the Sears Tower and its design, photos/tags/willistower/ or http://www.flickr.com/ construction and place in the pantheon of photos/skydeckchicago/ skyscrapers. Its name was recently changed to the Willis Tower, proudly reflecting the name of As you get ready for your trip, please call us with the global insurance broker who makes the Tower any questions at (312) 875-9447. We aim to make its Chicago home. You will also learn about the your visit to the Nation’s Tallest School your best Skydeck view of Chicago, a view unlike any other school trip ever. anywhere. Included are other sections geared to the interests of your students and the needs of your curriculum, such as art, environmental efforts and our “city within a city.” s Adam Sears ea Adams P r owe T At the end are “Quincy Try This” activitiesQuincy and discussion Skydeck Entrance questions that relaten Jackso to eachBus Loading Ar section. We have used several of thems to create “Come Rain or Come erson ll ff acker Shine” fieldLa Salle Financial tripWe plansFranklin W to adaptClinton for Je all Des Plaines ages. 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G ARKIN P —Bruce Graham, lead architect, Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) EISENHOWER EXPRESSWAY CONGRESS PA RKWAY BUS 2 s ll We Financial THE HOWS, WHATS AND WOWS OF THE WILLIS TOWER www.theskydeck.com Harrison Harrison IN THIS GUIDE A SKYSCRAPER AMONG SKYSCRAPERS ACTIVITIES AND QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS The Skyscraper That Almost Wasn’t. 4 Try This: Spot the Willis Tower on Your Way into Chicago . 22 The First “Sears Tower” . 5 Role-Play This: What Problems Must Where Does the Willis Tower Rank You Solve to Build a Tower This High? . 22 Among the Word’s Tallest Buildings? . 5 Calculate This: How Many “Yous” Would Have to be Skyline of the World’s Tallest Buildings. 6 Stacked Head to Toe to Equal the Height of the Willis Tower? . 22 Discuss This: What Do the Shapes Mean? . 22 DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTING THE WORLD’S Design This: Make Your Own “Universe” . 22 TALLEST BUILDING Consider This: What Business Would You Include in the Willis Tower? . 23 A Thumbnail History of the Skyscraper. 7 Dare This: Walk Out on The Ledge . 23 Meeting the Design Challenges. 8 Picture This: Try Collaborative Photography The Tower Takes Shape . 9 to Create a Panoramic View . 23 From the Ground Up. 10 Discuss This: What Would It Be Like to “Fly Blind?” . 23 Sears Tower to Willis Tower: Timeline . 11 Try This: Create Your Own Souvenir . 24 Figure This: How Long Is Your Elevator Ride? . 24 ART AND ARTISTRY AT THE WILLIS TOWER Try This: Help the Environment at Your School . 24 Our Front Door . 12 Our Indoor “Universe” by Alexander Calder . 12 YOU AND THE VIEW ACTIVITY SHEETS Find This Outside: Landmarks to Locate by Day . 25 OUR CITY WITHIN A CITY Find This Outside: Landmarks to Locate by Night. 26 The Vertical Village . 13 I Spy on High . 27 Down Under . 13 Indoor Scavenger Hunt: Look, Listen and Interact! . 28 THE WORLD FROM THE TOP “COME RAIN OR COME SHINE” FIELD TRIP PLANS Everything Is at Your Feet. 14 Start Every Trip This Way . 29 How Many Different Languages Do You Hear? . 15 Sunny Day Trip. 29 Walking on Air: The Ledge . 16 Clear Evening Trip. 30 Rainy Day/Rainy Evening Trip . 31 HOW IT ALL WORKS: SAFETY, SYSTEMS AND MAINTENANCE FOR MORE INFORMATION: AN ANNOTATED The Command Center . 17 BIBLIOGRAPHY Safety at the Willis Tower. 17 Books . 32 People and Places . 17 Videos on DVD/VHS . 33 Electricity, Plumbing and Phone Service . 18 Online Resources . 34 All the Ups and Downs . 18 Software . 35 Keeping Cool and Staying Warm . 19 Washing the Outside. 19 MORE ABOUT YOUR TRIP Getting Here. 36 ENVIRONMENTAL EFFORTS AT THE WILLIS TOWER Local Map/Bus and Automobile Parking . 36 Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. 20 Entering Skydeck Chicago . 36 The Shrinking Carbon Footprint . 20 Accessibility . 36 How the Willis Tower Reduces Waste . 21 Meals and Snacks . 36 What’s Recycled at the Willis Tower . 21 Numbers to Know . 36 What’s Thrown Away at the Willis Tower . 21 Hours . 36 A New Kind of Heat Exchange . 21 Our Fine Feathered Hunters . 21 3 THE HOWS, WHATS AND WOWS OF THE WILLIS TOWER www.theskydeck.com A SKYSCRAPER AMONG SKYSCRAPERS Look at any photograph of Chicago, and there it THE SKYSCRAPER THAT ALMOST WASN’T is: the Willis Tower. This building, formerly known as the Sears Tower, says Chicago in the same way Planning for new office space for the Sears, the Eiffel Tower says Paris and the Empire State Roebuck Co. began in the late 1960s, when Building says New York. Sears was generating 1 percent of the annual value of all the goods and services produced in The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the nation, according to The Sears Tower by Craig the Willis Tower stands out from the rest of the and Katherine Doherty. A huge company needed a city’s skyline, even though Chicago includes some huge headquarters. The company figured it would of the most spectacular architecture anywhere. need enough room for more than 13,000 Chicago- As architecture critic Paul Goldberger put it a few area employees to meet its projected growth years ago, “What brownstone has ever been the through the end of the century. symbol of New York that the Empire State Building is, what lakefront park the icon that the Sears After interviewing many architects, Sears hired Tower has become?” Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architecture firm that recently had completed Chicago’s John Yet if the Sears, Roebuck Co. had followed Hancock Center. The team included Bruce Graham through on its initial thoughts for a new office as lead architect and Fazlur Khan as structural building, the Willis Tower would have been less engineer, a man later called the “Einstein of of, well, a tower. And the city would have lost its Structural Engineering.” most recognizable landmark. THE TALL BUILDING IS THE LANDMARK OF OUR AGE. —Ada Louise Huxtable 4 THE HOWS, WHATS AND WOWS OF THE WILLIS TOWER www.theskydeck.com Sears envisioned a building with enormous floors, some of which would be rented out to other businesses before Sears needed them for its own THE FIRST “SEARS TOWER” employees. Indeed, the first plan would have made When business partners Richard Sears the Sears “tower” 40 stories of 110,000 square feet and Alvah Roebuck decided to build the first each. This would have been just fine for Sears, but national headquarters for the Sears, Roebuck not for the other, much smaller businesses Sears Co. in 1905, they looked to the skies. had hoped would rent space. The first “Sears tower” stood 12 stories Each new plan called for an increasingly vertical high, overlooking the neighborhood around design, offering more floors with less space. When Homan and Arthington Roads in northwest the building design finally called for 104 stories, Chicago. Originally designed as a water tower, someone suggested that only six more would the 250-foot-high structure in 1924 became create the world’s tallest building at 110 stories. a broadcasting studio for a Sears-owned Thus, a skyscraper among skyscrapers—and the radio station, WLS, whose call letters stood icon of Chicago—was conceived. for “World’s Largest Store.” A year later, the company opened its first retail store in the WHERE DOES THE WILLIS TOWER brick complex adjacent to the tower. Sears RANK AMONG THE WORLD’S TALLEST Holdings, one of the nation’s largest retailers, continues to bear the famous name.